Pippa Middleton shy and down-to-earth, says Matt Lauer

After conducting Pippa Middleton's first television interview US presenter Matt Lauer says Americans will "like her very much"

By Nick Allen and agencies

5:49AM BST 28 Jun 2014

Pippa Middleton had no idea how big her sister's marriage to the Duke of Cambridge would be since she saw it as just another family wedding, according to a US interviewer.

Matt Lauer of NBC News, who conducted the interview, said: "That stopped me in my tracks, that she looked at this as, 'Oh, my sister is getting married,' not that, 'Oh, I'm the maid of honour in the royal wedding.'" The "Today" show host travelled to London this week to talk to the 30-year-old sister of the Duchess of Cambridge. It was Miss Middleton's first television interview and will be broadcast in two parts on Monday and Tuesday.

Lauer told the Associated Press: "A lot of people are curious about how life has changed for her over these past two or three years.

"Yes, there were a lot of ladies here at the office that want to know what became of the dress. Does she still have it? Will she wear it again? It clearly made her famous in a lot of ways."

He described Miss Middleton as shy, but very down-to-earth. He added: "I think they are going to like her very much. I think she is going to pleasantly surprise people."

In extracts from the interview released by NBC on Thursday, Lauer asked Miss Middleton whether the marriage of her sister had changed their relationship.

She said: "Not particularly, no. I mean, obviously she has pressures that she's taken on and things. But we spend a lot of time together.

"We still do a lot together as a family. And I think that's really the heart for all of us is having a really close family that we can sort of be normal with each other, treat each other normally. And that's sort of kept us all, you know, affixed to the ground."

Lauer said: "So you can call any night and say, 'Hey, Kate, it's Pippa. Let's just do girl talk like we used to'?"

She said: "Yeah. Yeah, we do we have a very normal, sisterly relationship. We're very close. And, you know, we support each other and get each other's opinions and things."

Miss Middleton recently returned from the United States after a 3,000-mile charity coast-to-coast bicycle race.

She told Lauer: "Through the trip it was just amazing to go through so many different states and just see the diversity of the landscape, the countryside – it's huge.

"I love it. It's very friendly, very welcoming. And we felt that the entire way. And the scenery was incredible. And I think that's what lifted our spirits when it really hurt, sort of grinding on the bike, was to see everything around us. From the mountains, the desert, through the flat plains of Kansas."